Chapter 47

Chapter 47

The nanoswarm cat and I have been staring at each other for about an hour now.

This is becoming increasingly awkward for me, and I *think* its awkward for them too because Ive noticed the nanoswarm shifting back and forth on its vaguely stable paws.Read latest chapters at novelhall.com Only

Dyn has decided this isnt her department, and has started doing engineering checks on the power core, before we learn from the afterlife that it had a crack in it somewhere. I can respect this. Every now and then she passes between where I and my nanoswarm copy stand across from each other, briefly breaking eye contact between us.

And every time, I wonder if the nanoswarm is going to vanish. Just a fragment of my imagination. One more ghost I imagined or wished for. And Ill wake up soon to learn that I was too late and Im just dreaming again and everyones dead but me.

And itll all happen again.

One more cycle for the pile that is my life.

Shift, yan. Dyn nudges at the side of my still-breached suit with her knee. I should have built this engineering suit bigger; Im three times my size and barely come up to her knee. At least shes comfortable enough to try to move me around when Im in the way now, though. I find that life or death combat really brings people together.

I move, slightly, trying to keep the nanoswarm in sight, but then Dyn moves between us again and sets a portable seal tank she unloaded off Jom while I was staring. Which blocks my staring, let me tell you. I move again.

Nanoswarms still there.

I suppose I should get it over with.

Are you real? I ask.

Sort of! The nanoswarm replies in fluent Cat, a mix of a meow and a flick of the ears. Its an expressive language, and Ive never actually had it spoken back to me before. Its strange. Are you?

Ye- well, okay, maybe. I concede. Thats kind of a heavy question, if were being honest here. My brain, treacherous organic machine that it is, ticks into motion pondering that without my consent.

I come up with a few silly answers pretty quickly, and all the psychic tension thats been holding this moment together and keeping this maybe-dream stable bleeds out like it wasnt there.

But I dont wake up this time.

I pad over to the nanoswarm, still perched quietly on the wreck of the corp war era killing machine. My suits pawpoints clatter roughly as I climb up next to it, the jagged metal of the breach in my chestplate cutting into my skin all over again. I reach out slowly, and then rapidly land a bat of a paw on the nanoswarms head.

The cloud of high tech particles deform slightly, then spring back to the shape of my own head when I pull my paw away. Stop that. They say in Cat. That phrase in Cat is mostly just a yelp, with some paw flailing mixed in.

What are you? I ask.

For the first time in a while, I *havent seen this before*. If I were feeling better, this might be a fun experience. As it is well, its still an experience! I lean into it. Im not waking up. Dyns not dead. Joms not

Hey Jom, you doing okay out there? I ask through the local comm net. I get back a tactical appraisal of potential threats within ten seconds of us, and a ready status. And then, shortly after, an almost sheepish ping that hes fine. Joms learning to socialize more at my speed.

Its good that hes growing. The nanocat - Im calling it a nanocat, that sounds cool - flicks her tail at me. And I told you what I am.

What? I pause. Then think back. On the station, when the nanoswarm first joined me in my suit, as soon as the sealed shell blocked off the stations link. It spelled something out. Uh friendly?

Ive never had a nanoswarm *roll its eyes at me* before. Dammit, *I* cant roll my eyes, how come it gets to? Youre pretending to be a cat, you cant cheat like that!

But that was what it had said, right? It had said it was a friend, and then it had made fun of me, and called me a

Silly old cat.

Wait.

What are you? I ask, quieter. No. *Who* are you?

The nanoswarm regards me sadly with fabricated eyes that still register to me as tired, and old. My name is Lily. She says. Lily Ad-Alice. Ive been waiting a long time to talk to you. Theres a brief pause. And then, the nanocats ears perk up. Hello!

I might need a moment to process this.

Im a cat, not a computer. Lily retorts at me.

Okay, hang on. I pause, letting the laser snap off with a hiss that I can actually hear through the hole in my suit. I flick my tongue over my mouth inside my helmet as I turn to face the nanocat. Youre a living nanoswarm with my name and face. Are you sure youre a cat?

Youre a biologically immortal smartass wearing an engineering department as a coat. Are *you* a cat?

I wont lie, that sentence doesnt exist in spoken Cat. Or at least, it didnt until that moment. Were writing it together.

Also, hey!

Well, I could have used your help you know. Over the last uh some amount of time.

I was still learning. She says, a little defensively, as the nanoswarm pads over and extends a tendril of mass into my suit to retrieve the code tile. Fortunately, that thing survived me getting spiked. Also, I cannot see you on the station. I twitch slightly as the nanobots tickle my fur again, and give her a questioning tilt of my head. At all. The parts of me around you on the station are slaved to low level cleaning routines. I think. It happens in several spots I am not allowed.

And here I thought just having to deal with doors not opening for me was a nightmare.

I have a worrying thought. Not like I have any non-worrying thoughts anymore, honestly. Howd you talk to me in the suit? Howd you find me?

She gives a rippling nanoswarm shrug. I saw you learned about you from we dont have a word for this.

Oh. I realize and remember, all at once. A warm room. Another cat in Alices lap. I saw you in a dream. I murmur.

Yes! She ripple-nods back at me. And then I knew how to look! She showed me. Mom showed me.

I have so many more questions. And also no idea what those questions are.

You can understand that? Dyn asks from nearby. She has one hand out and cocked downward, a gesture that I think means disbelief? I havent observed her closely enough yet.

Of course I can. I tell her. You should learn Cat. Its an elegant language. I made it myself! Lily meows at me with irritation. We made it ourselves!

No. Dyn answers. Its not going to kill us, is it? Shes still eying the nanocat with hostility. I think. Maybe thats just how Dyn looks at things. Because if not, get back to cutting.

Dyn has turned from afraid to speak to me, to giving me orders, in only two life or death crises. Thats a record! It took at least five before Ennos lost all respect for my mysterious majesty. Im proud of her. But then, I guess even with Ennos being a superintelligence capable of learning at an accelerated rate, Dyn still is, like, eighty years old. That must be worth something.

I still shut up and get back to cutting.

Together, the three of us program protocol filters, lay cable, purge databases, bring ancient systems back online, lay the dead to rest, lay the combat drone into a material shredder on the industrial repeater parked near the station - thanks Jom, I hated that thing and it was in the way - configure systems, run ready checks, and make sure nothing is going to explode.

It takes us two days to get the frigate up and running.

Well, running. Dyn was right, the engines *are* scrap. And I dont have the stuff to get them running; engineering nanoswarms can only go so far without the right blueprints. Actually, even then, theyre not the best tools. I actually have a ranking order of tools that tends to open with the most specific possible thing for a job, but those all take thumbs, so they

You know what? This isnt important.

Our life raft is online.

Dyn complains that this ship would have been the wealth of a generation for her people. Jom complains that the ship lacks point-intercept flechette guns. Other Lily complains that actually, shes not complaining at all.

Why arent you complaining? I ask. Get in on it. Everyones having fun.

Im just looking forward to getting home. She says. Even if we wont talk for a while. The nanocat brushes up against my side, particles splashing across the suit like thick water.

She says that. But I hope shes wrong.

And if shes not, Im going to start breaking things on the station until it gives into my demands.

I havent finally found myself just to lose her again.